Hate crime charges in attack on Muslim cab driver
Michael Enright once volunteered with a group that promotes interfaith tolerance and has supported a proposal for a mosque near ground zero — an experience distinctly at odds with what authorities say happened inside a city taxi, the Associated Press reports.
The baby-faced college student was charged Wednesday with using a folding knife to slash the neck and face of the taxi's Bangladeshi driver after the driver said he was Muslim. Police say Enright was drunk at the time.
A taxi drivers' labor group quickly used the attack to denounce "bigotry" over plans to build an Islamic center and mosque two blocks north of ground zero. While supporters of the mosque say religious freedom should be protected, opponents say the mosque should be moved farther from where Islamic extremists destroyed the World Trade Center and killed nearly 2,800 people on Sept. 11, 2001.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a staunch supporter of the mosque project, invited the taxi driver to visit City Hall on Thursday.
"This attack runs counter to everything that New Yorkers believe no matter what god we pray to," the mayor said in a statement.
A criminal complaint alleges Enright uttered an Arabic greeting and told the driver, "Consider this a checkpoint," before attacking him Tuesday night inside the yellow cab in Manhattan.
A judge ordered Enright, 21, held without bail on charges of attempted murder and assault as hate crimes and weapon possession. The handcuffed defendant, wearing a polo shirt and cargo shorts, did not enter a plea during the brief court appearance.
Besides a serious neck wound, cabbie Ahmed H. Sharif, 43, suffered cuts to his forearms, his face and one hand while trying to fend off Enright, prosecutor James Zeleta said while arguing against bail.
Defense attorney Jason Martin told the judge his client was an honors student at the School of Visual Arts, had volunteered in Afghanistan and lives with his parents in suburban Brewster, N.Y.
To deny bail, given his background, "I don't think is warranted," Martin argued.
A representative for the volunteer group, Intersections International, called the situation "tragic."
"We've been working very hard to build bridges between folks from different religions and cultures," said the Rev. Robert Chase. "This is really shocking and sad for us."
The group, founded in 2007, says it's dedicated to promoting justice, reconciliation and peace among people of different faiths, cultures, ideologies, races and classes.
A trailer for a Enright's school film, "Home of the Brave," was excerpted on the group's website. Enright followed his former high school classmate, Cpl. Alex Eckner, and his Army unit through basic training in Hawaii and their deployment to Afghanistan.
The film, set for release in 2011, shows soldiers training with weapons in a pool, running in formation and celebrating birthdays and Christmas while in basic training.
"You can't not be scared, that helps you operate," one soldier says in the trailer. "It helps you do your job."
Sharif, who has driven a cab for 15 years, was quoted in a news release from the New York Taxi Workers Alliance as saying the attack left him shaken.
"I feel very sad," he said. With the tension over the mosque, he added, "All drivers should be more careful."
Enright hailed the cab around 6 p.m. Tuesday, police Deputy Inspector Kim Royster said.
Sharif told authorities that during the trip Enright asked him whether he was Muslim. When he said yes, Enright pulled out a weapon — believed to be a tool with a blade called a Leatherman — and attacked him, Royster said.
After the assault, the driver tried to lock Enright inside the cab and drive to a police station, police said. The attacker jumped out a rear window about 15 blocks from where he hailed the cab, they said.
An officer there noticed the commotion, found Enright slumped on a sidewalk and arrested him.
Advocates argued that the tense climate around the proposed Islamic center was creating the potential for anti-Muslim violence.
"As other American minorities have experienced, hate speech often leads to hate crimes," said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Sadly, we've seen how the public vilification of Islam can lead some individuals to violence against innocent people."
Comments
What is the connection here. About two or three months ago it was made a crime punishable by many many years in prison to attack a NY cab driver. A mere three months later a cab driver is attacked. It is not ANOTHER crazy thing to DISTRACT us from the FACT a new judge is being elected to the Supreme Court ?
Posted by: Tom Hennessy | August 27, 2010 7:26 AM
As a Catholic blogger no one expects me to make much sense anyways, but apparently I have outdone myself today on the subject of Sharia in the National Catholic Reporter. I know in these sensitive times, when Muslims can suffer very real discrimination and even violence, people might demand real historical/cultural accuracy. But again historical/cultural accuracy is not the point of Catholic blogging. You see Catholic liturgical music so inspires us to a state of all-encompassing blandness that we want to go out and blur all boundaries of accuracy and taste in the world. This is our right in the modern world. That is why I said today:
"Actually, there is an even better analogy for Pipes to make. Sharia is not like the U.S. Constitution, but its relationship to the Constitution should be exactly the same as the relationship of canon law to the Constitution."
Am I not brilliant, and tolerant for comparing canon law's relationship to the Constitution to Sharia's relationship to the Constitution! I know those cultural accuracy freaks might say there is nothing to this relationship at all. They would point out that Canon Law developed most highly at an age of great intellectual efflorescence for the Catholic Church, and thus it represents some of the most considered legal thinking of the age. It enshrined many subtle legal concepts which were great developments of the Western mind. Whereas these cultural accuracy freaks might point out
that during the periods of great intellectual efflorescence of Islam, under the Caliphs, legal theory was very wide-ranging and very, very tolerant. Sharia was a part of a wide governmental philosophy. Not a distinct hegemonic movement. The rise of that hegemonic movement of Sharia as a force for oppression arose during the period of decline of Islamic cultures that Bernard Lewis has described. Thus for these accuracy freaks comparing Sharia to Roman Catholic Canon Law is just apples to oranges. (They might point more likely to very regressive protestant "sumptuary" laws in the American colonies as a better identification.) One represents the high point intellectually of a tradition , the other a low-point . That is, it appears thus if we are viewing it from the broad cultural context of intellectual evolution. They might point out that Sharia as a regressive movement remains a potential danger because of its relation to fanaticism. Some of those accuracy freaks are anti-Catholic bigots so they probably just would say that for intellectual consistency. But I have a special path and it is defending the Church in my own special, very special way.
Posted by: Michael Sean Wintersmix | August 27, 2010 12:05 PM
As someone who is uniquely perceptive of the Natural law darkness into which our culture has been thrown, I am waiting for enlightenment tomorrow. My dear colleague Glenn Beck will be presenting his "You Can Survive the Apocalypse with Gold Coins!, and Restore Honor!" sermon at the Lincoln Memorial. I will be watching with eagerness for I am itching to present a Catholic version. Who would have thought that you could link the great civil rights virtues of a truly great man, Dr. Martin Luther King, with Gold Coins. Glenn is a genius! It is also very important that the very Natural Law- type lady Alveda King will be on hand. She will be revising Dr. King's message from "I Have a Dream" to "I Am Against Abortion and For Gold Coins!". Thom has been working hard to get things ready for Glenn's show, and I am having him set up a booth with free paper fans with pictures of Gold Bars on them (just like on our APP website) . On each paper fan will be the words "Natural Law, the Gold Standard". Also I asked Thom to find someone to defend Alveda King on his Catholic Vote action site. I told him, Thom make sure you get someone whose picture looks like a deranged Postal employee, because that way people will know to give us some space tomorrow. He really scored with John Mallon, who let everyone know that the people who are really highjacking Dr. King's dream are the ones who are against a gold salesman using his image. Gold is the future, now that many of us are working hard with people like Beck to destroy the present.
Dr. Robert Georgeous, Gold Coin Salesman and Gold Standard Natural Law Theorist
Posted by: Robert Georgeous Gold Alert | August 27, 2010 8:15 PM